By HELLEN TEMBO
CIVIL Society Organisations (CSOs) have said that they will engage the Government to see how best to conduct a referendum on the expanded Bill of Rights.
Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), Grand Coalition and Commuter Rights Association (CRA) said they would engage the Government after the inauguration to ensure that the referendum on the expanded Bill of Rights is held.
The three CSOs said this when they featured on Radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk programme yesterday.
YALI president Andrew Ntewewe said it was unfortunate that the referendum failed because of the CSOs, especially the Grand Coalition and some opposition political parties.
Mr Ntewewe said politicians needed to differentiate between partisan and national matters.
“If the referendum was a stand-alone, it was going to be expensive. That’s why we suggested that the referendum goes alongside the elections because we knew that it was going to be easily absorbed because of the elections,” he said.
Mr Ntewewe said people needed to know that the referendum was not proposed by the Patriotic Front (PF) but it was made for the betterment of every citizen.
CRA president Aaron Kamuti said Zambians should not lose hope over the referendum because CSOs would try to lobby and make sure it came to pass.
Mr Kamuti said everyone had agreed that they needed an enhanced Bill of Rights in order to provide the Government with checks and balances.
“The referendum is important and all we needed was to sensitise people. It was unfortunate that some stakeholders took it upon themselves and took advantage by discouraging people not to vote for the referendum,” he said.
Grand Coalition representative John Mambo said the referendum was bound to fail because it was put alongside the general elections.
Bishop Mambo said it was going to be better if the referendum was held on its own because it was an important matter for every Zambian.
He said it was time to look at the possibility holding a stand-alone referendum and sensitising citizens about it.